A Triple Celebration for Origho

Origho cutting his anniversary cake and being assisted by his wife, Phina

Mary Ekah

It was a triple celebration for Mr. Peter Oghenovo Origho, a retired management staff of the National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), as family members held a three-in-one gala to mark the retirement, birthday and 30th marriage anniversary in honour of their son, husband, father, grandfather and brother on Saturday, February 24 at the Alliance Insurance Plc Event Centre, Lekki, Lagos.

Origho who was retired barely recently was born on the 10th of January 1958 and so the family felt it was high time they came together and celebrate a son who had made them proud over the years.

“My family is organising a retirement party for me. Incidentally, retirement has to do with age and so they are also celebrating my birthday. I was actually retired before 60 years of age but now I am 60. I started work at a very younger age. I was precisely 23 years old when I started work in 1981 with NNPC”, noted the celebrant whose wife, Phina, also shocked him with their 30th wedding anniversary surprises at the event.

Origho who was visibly stunned by the overwhelming show of love by his family members, noted, “Today, I feel great that my family is celebrating my birthday and retirement. This what everyone prays for and luckily God has granted me the grace to witness this day. I grew up as a child, went through service and then retired honourably after 35 years and now I am aging gracefully. It is something I should thank God for and the secret is just that I am charting the will of God.”

After retirement, Origho said he would be looking at impacting on the society from the wealth of experiences he had gathered while in service. Such experience he said should not be thrown aside but put into use for nation building.

The highlight of the day’s event was when his wife, Phina came up with surprises to mark their 30 years of marriage. This she did in a very romantic manner with artistic stage lighting which came along with a dreamy stage dance with her husband of 30 years. She also unloaded a surprise birthday cake for their marriage anniversary apart he gigantic cake that was already placed on podium for her husband’s birthday/retirement party.

Origho was quick to advice that for young couples to be happy and fulfilling in their marriages, they should be emotionally balanced. “People coming together as a couple from different environments, need to be emotionally balanced and also endeavour to understand each other,” he noted.

Origho lovely children were not left out as they presented him with life size art work with a motif of a man surrounded by women.

Origho however humorously explained that it does not mean he was surrounded by women in the negative sense. “Yes, I love women, I don’t have a choice because I have four girls and the last, a boy, I have just one boy, so that is why they said I am surrounded by women and I have been enjoying the women folk.”, he noted.
Speaking further, he said, “Again when you talk about gender sensitivity, you would appreciate the fact that you need a man that loves women, but it might not be on negative perspective.”

Speaking briefly on his working career as an NNPC staff, he said, “When you talk about NNPC, most people in Nigeria access it in the filling station, but NNPC goes beyond that, I have been with the organisation for more than three decades and one good thing about NNPC is the exposure you get. My experience there has been great. I was committed to work and also got awarded for that.”

He called on young people to be committed to whatever they do and also to see their careers as the ultimate instead of focusing on the money. “My fear now is that most young people in Nigeria want to see what money they can grab quickly but that will not help. Knowledge is very powerful because if you are very knowledgeable in any field, it would be difficult for anybody to push you aside or ignore you. So when you acquire a lot of skills on your field of endeavour first, a time will come when money will come. So the fear now is, are our engineers knowledgeable in this industry? That is what we should look at and in fact we need a cultural change in that aspect. The young people should really look at what they can offer to organisations they work with and how they can grow the organisations rather than looking at the money they can get,” he noted.

Born on January 10, 1958 to late Mr. Pius Origho and late Mrs. Lydia Onkpeya Origho nee Siakpere in the city of Warri, Delta State. Peter Origho is the second of 10 children born to his parents, who were prominent business entrepreneurs in Warri. He hails from Usiefurun in Ughelli South LGA. .

His kindergarten and primary school were at Roman Catholic School One and Children Nursery and Primary Home School. He attended secondary school at St Peter Claver’s College where his nickname “Sir K”. Origho did his HND in Petroleum Processing Engineering at the Petroleum Training Institute, Warri. He went further and pursued his PGD in Petroleum Economics and a Masters degree in Energy and Petroleum Economics.

His career journey began when he joined the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on July 10, 1981 as a Gas Technologist – Western Operations Department (WOD) where he undertook two years training programme organised by Comerit Italy on Petroleum Process plant operation and maintenance.

In 1988 he was deployed to the Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) and became one of the pioneer staff. Via the aid of his employers, he also worked as an attaché with Irish Gas Company Cork, Ireland.

He started climbing up the occupational ladder. He was promoted as a manager and transferred to NAPIMS where he also held the following positions as: Manager, Investment Management Department, Gas Division; Manager, Facilities and Plants department, Gas division and Manager, Facilities, JV Oil Division.
In addition to his core duties at work, he served as an in-house facilitator, training NGC younger engineers on process plant operations and maintenance.

His outstanding performance on the job rewarded him with the NNPC GMD’s Merit Award in 1995. His leadership expertise earned him a one-time Chairman NGC branch Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association, President Prime Service Circle of Nigeria and National President St. Peter Claver’s College Old Boys Association.
Origho who recently retired from service, is currently the Co-owner of a lucrative franchise called PLAMJ Hotels and Catering Services and the CEO of Rukena Energy Servicing Company.

He met his wife, Phina who is from Onitsha, Anambra State in 1978 and after 10 years of friendship he decided to call a spade a spade by tying the knot in February 1988. Their marriage is blessed with five beautiful children.
His daughter, Miss Mabel Origho describes his father as a man of numerous words who constantly dispenses pearls of wisdom whenever he gets an opportunity.

“I admire his charisma and his charming smile, which has the ability to light up a room. Through many sacrifices he raised us to be hardworking, independent, integral members of the society, to be pragmatic in decision-making yet diplomatic in execution. Words cannot describe nor quantify my love and respect for my father, my hero. Thank you for teaching us the power of humour and being protective of your girls, thank you for setting the standards high and allowing us know we do not deserve anything less than what our mother got. To a loving husband, a devoted father, an excellent grandfather and an honest friend, may we your children bring you the joy and gladness that your heart deserves, may your life after service be filled with fulfilment and bliss and may you live long and prosper,” Mabel noted in a tribute to her father.

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